Yesterday evening, I received an interesting text message from Carl Harris, Owner and CEO of Big InterSports Group, an investment group based in California who approached me earlier this year expressing their interest in the mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. "Dude you ****ed up by dissing me. Watch the news. Just to let you know I am in new york in bob arums suite. You do the math," the text message read. Now, keep in mind, I was minding my own business, paying absolutely no attention to the latest rumors about the alleged negotiations going on between Pacquiao and Mayweather. Despite the fact that Pacquiao recently stated that "negotiations are almost done", and one of his close confidants, Rex "Wakee" Salud, revealed that the fight is "80% from happening" and purses are "already $75 million", I've stood firm in my belief that everyone is being fooled and that Arum, with the help of Michael Koncz, has hatched an elaborate scheme to trick Pacquiao into thinking that he's working on the fight that he wants (Mayweather), when in reality, he's really finalizing details for a fourth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. To some, the idea may sound far-fetched, but given some of the recent tidbits of information released to the media from Arum and those closest to Pacquiao, as well as the text message that I received from Harris, I'm even more convinced, if that was even possible, that there's no way that the biggest fight in boxing history is "almost done" roughly one week after Koncz paid Mayweather a visit at his gym. I'm sure a lot of you are scratching your heads, wondering, "Who the heck is Carl Harris, what is he doing in Bob Arum's suite, and why is he texting FightHype?" By all means, allow me to connect the dots and explain.

On May 20, 2011, I was contacted via email by a gentleman named Levi Gutierrez, who said he had a proposal for the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao bout. According to the email, prior to contacting me, Gutierrez had already been in contact with Michael Koncz, who told him that he had reached out to Team Mayweather, but he had yet to hear anything back from them. Gutierrez then explained in the email that Koncz was aware of his investment group's plans to "buyout the fight for $150 million", offering a $25 million down payment to each fighter in the form of a cashier's check as soon as they signed the contracts. The email then stated that his partner, a gentleman by the name of Carl Harris, would be in contact with me later. Sure enough, later that day, I received a similar email from Mr. Harris, explaining that he had "put together a group of investors wanting to promote a bout between Pacquiao and Mayweather" and he was "ready to move forward, once I have contact with Floyd Mayweather's camp, to present the offer, with a large deposit to make this happen."

Mind you, that wasn't the first time that I had been contacted by someone looking to get a hold of Floyd Mayweather with some sort of money-making scheme, so I really didn't put too much stock into it. Over the next several days, however, I received a number of emails, at least 20, from Gutierrez, asking if there was any way he and his partners, Harris and a Brad Dizon, could visit Floyd Mayweather at the Big Boy Mansion. Naturally, curiosity got the best of me, so I finally decided to do a little research before I responded. Through the use of Google and YouTube, I quickly learned that Levi Gutierrez was a former employee of Manny Pacquiao, working at one point as his personal videographer until a run-in with Michael Koncz got him relieved of his duties. He also worked with a Valerie Gonzales for a company called Pacman Productions, which at one point was responsible for booking Pacquiao's after-fight parties. Gutierrez would later confirm all of that information to me.

Over the course of several emails and phone conversations, both Gutierrez and Harris explained to me that, having already spoken directly to Manny Pacquiao himself, they were looking for a way to get in contact with Mayweather. According to Harris, he was able to meet and speak with Pacquiao directly through his partner, Gutierrez, but he had yet to have any conversations with his promoter, Bob Arum, or representatives of Mayweather. According to Harris, Bob Arum was looking for a total buy-out of the fight, meaning no additional revenue other than the guarantee would be promised to the fighters, and he was confident that $150 million would be enough to satisfy all parties involved. As Gutierrez pointed out via email, previous discussions with Koncz led them to believe that the amount was "good enough to work it out", but after sending an official Letter of Intent to the offices of Top Rank in April, they had yet to hear back from anyone, so they were reaching out to individuals who they felt could put them in contact with the right people. In fact, prior to contacting me, they also had conversations with Examiner.com boxing scribe Michael Marley, who informed them that his legal fee to act as an adviser and set up a meeting with the decision makers for both fighters was $25,000, of which he would need $15,000 up front. I'm sure if anyone asks Mr. Marley, he'll be more than happy to confirm that information.

Apparently, Harris and Gutierrez decided to go another route, at which point I was contacted. Providing more details, Gutierrez would forward me information on their company, Big Intersports Group (B.I.G.), described as "a collective of seasoned sports and entertainment experts that have board-level positions within the Corporate Sports Marketing, Event Production and Entertainment Media business" and listing Carl Harris as the Owner/CEO and Brad Dizon as Entertainment Manager. He also sent me the same Letter of Intent that was sent to the offices of Top Rank, outlining the basic terms of their agreement to pay both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather a total of $75 million, which, interestingly enough, is the same purse figure that Rex "Wakee" Salud recently mentioned. There was no mention of Top Rank Promotions, however, and the agreement made it clear that B.I.G. would control "all aspects" of the event, including site determination, the cable company, and all international and domestic rights. It's extremely difficult to believe that Arum would even entertain such a notion, but he did recently tell Michael Marley that "these investors, having made a fabulous investment in the fight, would have plenty to say about every aspect of it" and his company "would take a functional role" and simply "handle the nuts and bolts, the boxing aspects of the promotion" if a deal could get done. Again, according to the rather simplistic offer that was presented to me back in May, the only revenue that was listed was the $75 million for both fighters. Furthermore, all revenue generated from the event would belong to B.I.G., making me wonder exactly what Arum would have to gain if, like Harris said, it was an offer for a total buy-out.

Nevertheless, as previously stated, that wasn't the first time that I was contacted by outside parties looking to do business with Floyd Mayweather, so as I've done in the past, I forwarded the information on accordingly. That was, however, the first time I had heard that Bob Arum was entertaining the idea of giving up all rights to the fight. Due to the fact that I didn't notice any language in the Letter of Intent detailing any revenue set aside for Pacquiao's promoter, who we all know is entitled to his own percentage, I informed Harris that I didn't really think an offer of $150 million was going to be enough. He seemed somewhat perplexed when I explained to him that if both sides were getting $75 million and each fighter was getting $25 million of that once they signed the contract, then according to his Letter of Intent, Bob Arum would be expected to take his percentage out of the $50 million that was remaining, meaning he would be making significantly less than both fighters in what's expected to be the richest fight in boxing history. Basically, I didn't really think the offer was legitimate enough to make Bob Arum even bother looking at it, which is probably why they had never heard from anyone after sending that same Letter of Intent to Top Rank back in April. Truth be told, I honestly thought Arum could potentially put his life in jeopardy, as he very well might have died laughing if he saw the offer. I mean, in an ideal world, the fighter probably should make more money than the promoter, but does anyone seriously believe that to be the case, especially when it comes to a fight that could generate nearly 2.5 million or more pay-per-view buys?

Regardless, Harris was undeterred and prepared to do whatever it took to have a meeting with a representative from either side. I suggested that perhaps an interview might bring some eyes to the offer. At the very least, I figured it would generate some attention from boxing fans and possibly make some other writers start to ask questions. Harris agreed and we conducted the interview. Before it could be posted, however, Mayweather had already announced that he would be facing Victor Ortiz on September 17, making Harris' idea of a November 12 clash with Pacquiao, who had already agreed to fight Marquez, essentially disappear. Having done all I could to forward their information, I really didn't see a need to continue discussions with them, especially since, as you will see in the interview below, Harris agreed that nothing would get accomplished without Bob Arum being on board. I did, however, write an article about the $75 million offer that was sent to Top Rank on the heels of Arum alleging that Mayweather had turned down a $65 million offer from some investment group in Singagpore. Some in the media totally ignored my story, thinking it was merely an attempt to defend Mayweather. Michael Marley, however, knew exactly what I was talking about, even following up on my story with his own, referring to Harris and Gutierrez as "novices" as he wrote, "Back to Big Ben at Mayweather's self-chosen bulletin board website. A Filipino gentleman and a black American are the guys behind the purported $75 million purse offers and they are complete boxing novices. The American guy said he's a big macher in the music business."

The last I had heard from either Harris or Gutierrez, who were still determined to pitch their offer, was back in July. That was until yesterday, when I received the text from Harris confirming that he was in New York in Bob Arum's suite. In fact, shortly after 1:00AM ET, Harris would text me again, telling me, "I am with Koncz now! Going to margarito/cotto fight". Now, whether or not Harris and his group are the same investors that Bob Arum has been talking about to the media remains to be seen, however, given his text messages to me, telling me that I "****ed up", informing me that he was in New York in Arum's suite and meeting with Koncz, and instructing me to do the math and watch the news, I think it's pretty safe to say that he's not just their to take pictures. Despite being described as a "boxing novice", it certainly sounds like Harris, with the help of Gutierrez's prior relationship with Koncz, was able to secure the opportunity he's been waiting for to pitch his offer to Arum in person. It's unclear as to why it's taken this long to get it when Michael Koncz and Top Rank have been aware of the offer since April. My guess, however, is that it was Koncz who contacted them, looking to take more pictures and gather more "proof" that both he and Arum are indeed doing everything in their power to entertain offers and "negotiate" to get Pacquiao the real fight that he wants. While rumors continue to spread that negotiations with Floyd Mayweather are ongoing and a deal is close to being finalized just one week after Koncz visited him at the gym, I still maintain that it's all just a charade, getting the hopes up of fans, media, investors like Carl Harris, and Pacquiao himself. From what I saw of their initial offer that was presented back in April, it's going to take a lot more than that for Bob Arum to even seriously entertain the idea of a full buy-out.

Is Bob Arum entertaining offers? Of course he is. This isn't the first time (remember the letter he received last year from Abu Dhabi offering him "gazillions" and the call he got from a party in Qatar) and it won't be the last, but the fact remains that listening to offers of $150 million does not constitute negotiations and certainly doesn't mean that a deal is "almost done". Believe me, I hope I'm wrong; I really do, because if I am, that means there's a good chance that we really will be seeing Mayweather vs. Pacquiao in May. Unfortunately, from everything that I've seen and heard, it's far more likely that Manny Pacquiao's next fight will be against Juan Manuel Marquez on June 9, 2012 at Cowboys Stadium. But hey, assuming that someone gets word of this article to Pacquiao, at least he now knows that since April, there's been an offer of $75 million that, up until now, Bob Arum has chosen to ignore. Check out my full interview with Harris, conducted in June, below:

BT: I'm doing good. I guess first and foremost, everybody is going to want to know who you are, so why don't you give us a little background about yourself.

CH: Okay, well, I come from the entertainment background. I've been working in the music industry for the last 20 years, writing and producing music, owning a record company, handling distribution, artist management, as well as being a songwriter and a producer. My first foray into the business world, I did a leverage buyout of a company called GHQ For Men back in 1993. What I did with that deal was, about the time, there was 36 mens clothing stores from another company. I bought the company and then I sold the leases back to the landlord and made a profit. I mean, I had 36 stores everywhere; LA, San Francisco, Dallas, just everywhere. From that, I bought another public company called 2K Sounds, which was distributed by EMI Music. It was another leverage buyout where I bought the company, I bought what was left of the company, turned around and sold it to other investors, made a profit and kept it moving. But, you know, my main thing is the packaging of entertainment, you know, marketing, and producing, and promoting music.

BT: What exactly made you want to get involved in the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight?

CH: The catalyst was, actually, to be honest, other than being a fight fan was wanting to see this fight. I mean, I want to see this fight and I couldn't understand how two boxers could not get together, formulate a plan, and consummate a deal in order to make this bout work. I honestly feel that boxing needs to change. I'm not going to say anything bad about anybody that's in the arena now, but I just feel as though boxing needs to change. You know, it's like the Miami Heat saying, "I don't want to play the Dallas Mavericks because the money is not good enough and I just don't want to play them." No other sport can you dictate who your challengers can be to the degree that boxing does, you know, giving the champion the ability to duck and dodge fights and take on lesser fighters who haven't even earned the right to step into the ring with them, but because of monetary value, they do so. I think that's wrong. I don't want to go out and say that it's corrupt, I don't want to say that, but I think the system that's in place is wrong and I think that the fighters are being taken advantage of. I want to do my part, if I can, to bring an end to that. You know what I mean? Honestly, I can't completely understand how can a fighter get in the ring and, even if he's making $25 million a fight, he's still coming up on the short end of the stick as far as the money goes, but he's the one who puts his life on the line every time he steps into the ring. If he should drop dead in the middle of the ring, nobody is going to care. They'll have 2 or 3 days of remorse, there will be a little buzz on the internet and network TV, but after that, it's back to business as usual. I wanted to jump in there and see what I can do and see if I can bring a change about. Everything for me is not about making money, but of course, I want to make money. That's another thing, I do see the lucrative side of this fight. From a business point of view, I see it being very lucrative, even if it's $75 million per side. From a business standpoint, I'm loving it.
BT: (Laughing) I'm sure you are. So how exactly did you put this offer together? Did you put this offer together by yourself or is it a group of people?

CH: I put the offer together and I have a group of investors from Los Angeles as far as China backing me on my position on this fight. That's why I'm able to put together $150 million for this fight and convince them to allow me to pay $25 milllion up front and show our seriousness on the fight. A lot of people are saying, "Who are these people?" Okay, that's irrelevant. What's relevant is here's $25 million Pacquiao, here's $25 million Mayweather, and that's just to put your name on the contract. That's why the there's the $25 million up front, so we can be taken seriously and let people know we're dead serious. I'm sure there's people that come through and say we're going to do this and we're going to do that, and you know, they don't have the money or they can't get the money or they're trying to put the deal together. I respect that, but what I'm saying is, here's my $25 million Pacquiao, here's my $25 million Mayweather, now let's make this fight happen.

BT: You mentioned $150 million. Are you basically saying that right now, you've got $75 million per side, assuming that the split is 50/50, and of that $75 million, you're guaranteeing $25 million the minute they sign the contract?

CH: Yes. And I'm going on record with saying in order to make this fight happen, if I have to, not only can I give them the $25 million up front, I can give them the whole $75 million up front. We'll get our money on the backend.

BT: Wow! That's a strong statement.

CH: Yeah, we'll give them the money up front to shore up the fight. Now, to be honest, my partners might be like, "Wow, what if something happens?" So it may be like we'll put the money up front, $25 million here and $25 million here, and then we'll put $50 million in an escrow account in each boxer's name, and the minute they show up to fight, before the fight, make sure they don't drop dead and we gotta go back to the estate to get our money back, the money's there. All I'm saying is, show up on November 12, ready to fight, pass your drug test, do everything you're supposed to do, and you'll know, the night of the fight, you will be handed $50 million. That's a lot of money. I know that most of the time, boxers have to wait for the rest of their money after the fight, however long that takes.

BT: So assuming both guys can agree on the testing issue, you're saying the money is there right now?

CH: The money is there right now and we're ready to go.

BT: So this is something you're looking to do as soon as possible? You don't want Manny Pacquiao to fight Marquez. Come November 12th, you want to see Manny Pacquiao in the ring with Floyd Mayweather?

CH: Exactly!

BT: Have you had an opportunity to speak to either side yet?

CH: No, I have not. I've sent Letters of Intent to Bob Arum, but there's no response. I'm trying to do this the proper way because I can't go directly to Pacquiao and say look, blah, blah, blah, here's your offer. I'm trying to do it the proper way. I'm not trying to step on anybody's toes. I'm not trying to insult anybody. I did read the 48 Laws of Power (laughing). I did read that book.

BT: So Top Rank has in their possession a Letter of Intent with your offer outlined, but you haven't even heard back from them yet?

CH: No, I haven't heard back from them. Actually, I sent them the offer a week before the fight, his last fight [vs. Shane Mosley], so it was around the end of April. May 1st, somewhere around there.
BT: Before he fought Shane?

CH: Before he fought Shane. As a matter of fact, I told my partners, "We can't assume that he's going to beat Shane Mosley, but we pretty much think that he's going to beat Shane Mosley, and once he beats Shane Mosley, I expect to hear back from Top Rank."

BT: And you still haven't heard anything?

CH: I haven't heard anything back.

BT: Wow.

CH: It's pretty much a cut and dry situation. Pacquiao, agree to the blood test, Mayweather, you agree to a blood test, and get your $25 million and let's go. Start training and let's go.

BT: Obviously you haven't heard from Top Rank, but at this point, you're not even sure what Manny will agree to as far as testing?

CH: I'm not sure. That's what I'm trying to find out as opposed to going through hearsay. Let's hear it straight from the horse's mouth. Through hearsay, he's says the blood test is not a problem, so if the blood test is not a problem and if Mayweather is saying all we need is to take the blood test, then as far as I'm concerned, we should be making a deal, you know what I mean?

BT: So at this point, you're waiting to hear back from Bob Arum?

CH: We're waiting to hear back from Bob Arum. We gotta get Bob Arum on deck. In the beginning, I thought it was Floyd Mayweather making excuses not to fight Pacquiao, but in dealing with this situation, in the light of the fact we're offering $25 million up front to make it happen, I'm starting to see a different side of boxing. You know, who's really controlling who.